Duvet range to support New Zealand strong wool

Home textiles supplier Alastair Stewart has put a new woollen duvet in Briscoes stores after hearing about the strong wool woes of sheep farmers. Photo / Tim Cronshaw

A new line of duvets on Briscoes' shelves was inspired by sheep farmers fighting to make strong wool a viable option.

The plight of farmers struggling to compete against plastic products on a Sunday programme touched Christchurch's Alastair Stewart so much that he vowed to do something about it.

So the home textiles supplier put together a made-in-New Zealand range of wool and alpaca duvets under the Two Islands brand for the homeware retail chain.

He said it was disappointing to learn that farmers were getting nothing for producing a great product, and that wool was becoming a forgotten natural material.

"I saw this television programme and it resonated with me that we should be doing more with New Zealand wool and supporting New Zealand wool and New Zealand farmers," he said.

"Just by coincidence I met with Briscoes' buyers and they'd watched the programme too and the same thought struck them."

He contacted Wools of New Zealand to make contact with wool suppliers.

The farmer-owned company put him on to Middlemarch couple Callum and Kate Wilson and Gore farmers Logan and Nicole Evans, and the 35 micron wool is now sourced from them.

Stewart said New Zealanders understood the value of wool and its sustainable performance, but this was not always the case overseas.

"The wool is shorn, scoured and carded in New Zealand and manufactured into duvets in Auckland."

The duvets landed on store shelves last month.

Stewart said the duvets were now in 12 Briscoes stores, mostly in main centres, with plans to step up production so they could be available in all 45 stores nationwide.

He said Briscoes had supported woollen products for years and were keen to back the new offering.

The next goal was to produce more wool products to support New Zealand manufacturing and increase orders for more farmers, he said.

Wilson said they were grateful for the entry of Two Islands duvets in the market as strong wool demand had to increase.

"This is the sort of thing that is happening, but it's small at the moment. They all want to be eco-friendly now and wool is getting exposure. From small beginnings hopefully things will turn around — we can only hope."

Two Islands purchased five bales of texel fleece from the Wilson family, who sell 150 bales a year from their 5500 texel ewes and 1400 hoggets.

He said the high bulk of fleece from the texel flock was prized for duvets, pillows and mattresses because it "bounces back".

Their texels yield three kilograms of wool, but shearing costs were $5.70 a ewe last year.

They had been approached by an international mattress company about providing wool for the overseas market, but talks had been interrupted by Covid-19.

Mr Wilson said they hoped the deal would go ahead as they needed a higher price than the sub-$2/kg being offered for crossbred fleece.

"It comes back to what the mattress people were offering and that's $5/kg," he said. "That covers your cost and a little bit more. That's what you need."